I just received the following transmission from Stubbs. It is from his-friend-Mike who is a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru:“hey show this one to wade if you see him. i d like to know his take as a journalist. also is it permissible to post something like this on a blog in this day and age?? what do you think? also what would steve earle say? of course this is an infamous brothel i took a picture of about 20 km inside the Ecuadoran border.”

One of the maps shows the percentage of GDP various countries take in taxes.

There's a pretty big range in tax collections. Not surprisingly, perhaps, Cuba takes more in tax money as a percentage of GDP than anywhere else. The socialist Scandinavian nations are also high up there.

On the other hand, the US, like many East Asian countries, is pretty low down there in total tax collections.

A group of experts from the experimental plantation "La Nacla-Puntalón", owned by Caja Rural in the town of Motril, Spain, is studying how to convert unused or badly maintained greenhouses to be able to grow mangoes in them and achieve a 10% increase in production.

The technical engineer Ignacio Escobar explains that the plan would be to "convert old and unused greenhouses to plant mangoes in them, as they would neither need any major modifications nor a strong investment, while the owners could obtain a good yield and profits. The result would be a high productivity with a sustainable cost."

The property includes a greenhouse where mangoes were grown about five years ago. Although they have not yet reached their peak in productivity, they do offer an average yield of 25,000 kilos per hectare, which is approximately 10% more of what they would achieve in an open ground plantation.

The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, was greeted by hardliners chanting "death to America" when he returned to Tehran following his historic telephone call with the US president, Barack Obama.

One protester threw a shoes at his car – a gesture of deep insult in Islamic countries. It missed, but others pelted his official car with eggs and stones, according to witness reports on Twitter.

About 100 hardline protesters were outnumbered by two to three times as many Rouhani supporters at the airport, shouting "thank you Rouhani". The president stood up through the sunroof to acknowledge the crowds.

At 3:35 p.m. ET, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sent out a tweet that marked the most significant progress in U.S.-Iranian relations in more than three decades:

Twitter/@HassanRouhani

The tweet was quickly deleted — perhaps because Rouhani had inadvertently scooped what would be a huge announcement from U.S. President Barack Obama. Depending on what happens in the months and years to come, Rouhani's tweet has the potential of being a historic announcement.

"Just now, I spoke on the phone with President Rouhani of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Obama said at 3:42 p.m. ET in a statement from the White House briefing room. It was the first time that U.S. and Iranian leaders had spoken since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

"The two of us discussed our ongoing efforts to reach an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program. I reiterated to President Rouhani what I said in New York — while there will surely be important obstacles to moving for…

The journal of the National Geographic Society officially launched in October 1888.

Since then, National Geographic has expanded its global reach to over 60 million readers, a TV channel, and a website. The publication is known for its award-winning nature photography and knack for visual storytelling.

"Photography is a powerful tool and form of self-expression," Chris Johns, editor in chief of National Geographic magazine, said in the press release. "Sharing what you see and experience through the camera allows you to connect, move, and inspire people around the world."

National Geographic is also encouraging all photographers — from amate…

Ishigaki Island is located southwest of Okinawa Prefecture. It is 410 km away from the main island of Okinawa and 1,950 km away from Tokyo City. With an area of 222.6 square meters, this small island is famous for its mangoes. In summer, mango fruits produced from this Ishigaki are shipped to all parts of Japan.

Mango trees were introduced to Ishigaki from Taiwan in the 1930’s. While they are only 277 km apart, the trees did not initially bear fruit because of the different in climate. Unlike Taiwan, Ishigaki receives a huge amount of rainfall during the mango flowering season that inhibited fruit setting.

In the early 1980’s, Ishigaki city government embarked on a strategy to develop the mango industry. They established mango nurseries and distributed grafted plants to farmers. Farmers also studied mango cultivation and succeeded in producing fruits by covering mango trees with plastic sheets to protect from rain. This method eventually led to the development of greenhouses, which is c…

The Upper Talarik River's headwaters are near the proposed Pebble Mine site in the Iliamna Lake area of the Alaska Peninsula

(Corrects the length of exploratory drilling in the second graph.)

Given the scale and high capital requirements (the Pebble site spans 600 square miles), Northern Dynasty CEO Ron Thiessen says he’s open to finding a new partner. Anglo American’s millions have not gone to waste, he notes. In addition to gold and copper, they’ve found molybdenum and palladium.

“We’ve used specialized rigs that could be helicoptered in,” Thiessen says.“There are no roads in this part of western Alaska, and we haven’t built any. And we have as many as 100, even 160 people working on the site. They all have to be heli’d in. That gets expensive fast.” He says it was worth it, though, to demonstrate the company’s commitment to low-impact mining. Its voluminous environmental bas…

From mangoes to zucchini, Irving ISD asks students to broaden their taste buds

David Woo/Staff PhotographerGabriel Padron samples a piece of mango with his classmates at Brandenburg Elementary School. Brandenburg was one of many Irving ISD schools that tried mango at lunch for the first time. The program targets low-income students who may not get the nutrition they need at home.

Let’s just call the test a success.

Kids in the lunch line got something extra Friday. And while one girl covered her mouth and searched for a trash bin, most of her schoolmates at Brandenburg Elementary wolfed the mango down and liked it.